(CNN) - Two high-profile senators on Sunday continued to admonish Russia for not handing over Edward Snowden, the leaker of National Security Agency secrets who's hiding in Russia as he seeks asylum in Ecuador.

Republican Sen. John McCain said Snowden's actions amounted to a "slap in the face to the United States" and called President Vladimir Putin "an old colonel KGB apparatchik" who "dreams of the restoration of the Russian Empire."FULL POST

Washington (CNN) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Sunday refused to stop California from issuing same-sex marriage licenses, turning aside an emergency request from supporters of Proposition 8, the voter-approved measure that had earlier been dismissed by the justices on narrow, jurisdictional grounds. It is the latest legal and political twist in an issue that has divided the state.

Justice Anthony Kennedy refused to vacate a stay of a decision Friday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco, which had lifted a previous injunction on the ability of gays and lesbians to legally wed. Officials across the state, including the attorney general, quickly began performing same-sex marriages, including those of the two couples who brought the original lawsuit.

(CNN) - The House will hold hearings on the Voting Rights Act in July, following the Supreme Court's decision last week striking down a central part of the landmark law, House Judiciary Committee chairman Bob Goodlatte told CNN Sunday.

The Virginia Republican said he doesn't know whether Congress will work to change the law so that it's considered constitutional by the justices.FULL POST

(CNN) - U.S. President Barack Obama wrapped up his visit to South Africa on Sunday with a visit to the prison cell where anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela was held and a call to students to help build a new Africa.

Speaking at the University of Cape Town, Obama recounted how American college campaigns against investment in apartheid-era South Africa inspired him to get involved in a public cause for the first time. The school was the site of a famous speech by Sen. Robert F. Kennedy at the height of apartheid in 1966, and Obama said the leadership of figures like Kennedy, the now-ailing Mandela and Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi - who began his career as a lawyer in South Africa - "stand as a challenge to your generation."

His comments came after Maddow said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that those who oppose the right for gay and lesbian couples to legally wed think public policy should "demean gay people as a way of expressing disapproval of the fact that we exist."FULL POST

(CNN) - Two top lawmakers in the House immigration reform effort battled Sunday over how a compromise could be obtained in the Republican-controlled chamber, after the Democrat-controlled Senate passed sweeping reform legislation last week.

Republican Rep. Bob Goodlatte, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, flatly said the House should not take up the Senate bill and should produce its own version instead. But Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez, a fellow member of the committee, said Republicans are failing to produce anything worth voting on. The two sat side by side Sunday morning on CNN's "State of the Union."FULL POST

(CNN) – David Boies, one of the key attorneys who led the legal fight against California’s ban on same-sex marriage, reiterated Sunday he will work with proponents to make sure marriage equality becomes legal “in every single state in the union.”

“There isn't any state we're giving up on,” he told CNN’s chief political correspondent Candy Crowley on “State of the Union."FULL POST

(CNN) – U.S. Vice President Joe Biden asked Ecuador "to please reject" the request for asylum from self-avowed National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, according to Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa.

Snowden wasn't in Ecuador on Saturday, but if he does arrive there, the country will make a decision based on sovereignty, taking into account U.S. input, Correa said in his weekly broadcast on state TV.

(CNN) – President Barack Obama continued to push his aggressive climate change plan, urging Americans in his weekly address Saturday to contact their representatives and remind them "there is no contradiction between a sound environment and a strong economy."

"The question is not whether we need to act," he said. "The question is whether we will have the courage to act before it’s too late."FULL POST